Protections against blades, awls and other cutting tools are becoming an almost absolute necessity, especially for Security Forces, since more and more often these Forces have to face a new type of crime that uses such instruments, as they are easily available and concealable.
This need cannot leave aside also the protections against threats represented by bullet firing or fragments coming from explosions of metallic objects.
The protection mechanism against the so-called cold weapons, that is knives, etc., as described above, is completely different from the protection mechanism against bullets and fragments.
In order to obtain an efficient protection against both threats, the used protections generally combine at least two separate types thereof, which are obtained with predominantly textile structures.
There are a number of known solutions in the specific field of protections against penetration of cold weapons.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,737,368 claims a structure composed of at least three separate elements for the protection against blades, awls and bullets at the same time, in which at least one element is impregnated with thermoplastic or thermosetting resins.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,133,169 claims a structure for the protection against blades and awls composed of a metallic, flexible structure and a plurality of fabrics obtained otherwise.
The U.S. Pat. No. 7,340,779 claims a textile structure able to protect only against awls.
The U.S. Pat. No. 8,067,317 claims a structure able to protect against knives and bullets, but not against awls.
The U.S. Pat. No. 8,450,222 claims a textile structure covered at least on one side with a film of ethylene acrylic acid copolymer having determined hardness and tensile strength characteristics.
The Patent EP 1102958 B1 claims a structure realized with two layers of fabrics joined together with a polycarbonate film aimed at the protection against only cold weapons.
Other possible solutions, known to those skilled in the field, include one or more of the following types of fabrics: high density fabrics; high density fabrics subsequently further densified; covered with abrasive particles; combinations of steel meshes with laminated and not laminated fabrics.
In order to obtain protections against bullets, the resins used to reinforce the structure are selected among those having high elongation at break, low tenacity and low hardness, so that, for example, the Patent EP1595105 (which claims Italian priority of Patent Application No. IT2003MI00295 filed on 19 Feb. 2003) owned by F. Ili Citterio describes a structure impregnated with viscoelastic resin, which remains liquid even after the solvent has evaporated, therefore even softer than at Sh D 00 value.
The recent anti bullet structures are made of ballistic yarns positioned parallel without being interwoven, said structures being called unidirectional or semi-unidirectional. Therefore, due to the lack of interweaving and because of the soft resins used, such structure is completely unsuitable against cold weapons.
Each of the above described solutions has obvious disadvantages, for example, they are either completely impermeable to the air, and consequently not breathable, or they do not protect against the three threats at the same time—knife, awl, bullet—and they must be hybridized, which makes them heavy.